1200. CalGal - 10/17/99 1:58:07 PM
Cellar,

In your interesting review The Resurrection of Joe Orton, you make a brief aside that I realize isn't central to your piece:

In Lahr's thoroughly upper-middle-class, heterosexual hands, Orton and Halliwell become a gay parody of straight bohemian domesticity gone wrong. The ``discarded wife'' (Halliwell) takes revenge on the ``promiscuity'' of the ``husband'' (Orton); though the record suggests that Halliwell enjoyed all the boys Tangier had to offer every bit as much as Orton did.

I have read at least two other reviewers (one is Ebert, I forget who the other was) who interpret PUYE in the same way--Halliwell was the "wife" with the dishwater hands who helped him on the way up and then was discarded when Orton became famous.

This interests me because I saw the movie very differently--although I have no idea what Lahr's intentions were.

I thought it was blindingly obvious that Halliwell was slowly going insane; that Lorton loved him and was concerned for him--and, at the end, afraid of him. If anything, Orton was captive to a nutjob who he stayed with out of affection and loyalty.

I know nothing about Lahr and, for all I know, he did intend to imply what you suggest. And I do see some hints of this--while they were both shown with other men, Orton clearly had the advantage of numbers. The "parallel" with Shawn's wife. The fact that Halliwell was left out of gatherings.

But if this was his main intent, he miscalculated. The performances of Oldham and Molina, the gentleness with which Orton treats Halliwell, and the many scenes where Halliwell is clearly portrayed as insane are far more powerful and--to me, at any rate--convincingly demonstrate the true nature of their relationship and the cause of Orton's death.

1201. Cellar Door - 10/17/99 6:35:02 PM
The movie came off a good deal better than the book, despite the miscasting of Molina (Halliwell was Orton's height and weight and even looked enough like him to pass as a relation.) My main objection is to Lahr, and the purchase he has made on Orton's life and legacy. He's turned Orton's death into the Very Meaning of his art -- rather than that which brought artistic production to an end. I am extremely happy that the Chronicle offered me this opportunity to speak about Orton and continue the project begun by Simon Shepherd in his excellent if eccentric "Because We're Queers" (Gay Men's Press, 1989) of de-Lahr-izing him. If I can encourage one person to read "Between Us Girls" I'll be happy.